Improvement in washing-wiachines



UNITED STArns Parana OFFIGE JOHN M. OAKLEY, OF BROOKLYN, NE\V YORK,ASSIIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO JOHN KEATING, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASHlNG-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent Nollfiqi,2ll7, dated August3, 1875; application filed June 10, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN M. OAKLEY, of

Brooklyn, Kings county, State of New York, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Washing-lVIachines, whereof the following is aspecification My said invention relates to those machines in which arevolving ribbed cylinder is combined In operation with a concave bed ofrollers and it consists in the combination, with a revolving ribbedcylinder and oscillating roller-frame and rollers, of certainguiding-guards to prevent the clothes from working out at the ends ofthe rollers, such guards being an ranged inside the main frame, or infront of the cylinder; also, in curved journal-carriers having theirends extended outward and upward to form the guiding-guards 5 also, inmetallic journal-carriers, having guidingguards, and provided withtrunnions, such ournal-carriers being arranged to oscillate on or with arod playing in slots in the main frame.

In the annexed drawing, Figure 1 shows, in front elevation, a machineembodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an end view of the same, as with theend portion or side of the main frame removed, showing the end of thecylinder and one of the journal-carriers.

The ribbed cylinder A is preferably made of bars B, inserted in suitablemetallic disks forming the heads of the cylinder, which bars arearranged with a space between them, allowing the water to pass through.The cylinder has a shaft, D, mounted in suitable bearings in the sidepieces or uprights F-of a main frame, E F F. Beneath the cylinder A isthe roller-frame consisting of journal-carriers H arranged upon a bar,I, so as to allow either to oscillate freely thereon. In this frame areplaced a number of rollers, J J, ha\'ing the bearings of their journalsarranged in the are of a circle, whose radius is greater than that ofthe circumference of the cylinder, the effect of which is to remove theoutermost rollers a greater distance from the cylinder than the innerones, and thus an enlarged space is secured between the outer roller orrollers, that facilitates the entrance of the clothes not only whilepassing through, but in first inserting the same.

To guide the clothes, and prevent them from working out at the end ofthe cylinder as they pass into the machine, I provide guidingguards,arranged inside of the main frame, or in front of the cylinder A. Theseguards for simplicity are formed by extending the ends of thejournal-carriers I'I outward and up ward, as shown at h. The clothes arealso prevented from getting in between the ends of the rollers and theroller-frame by a rim or flange on the inside of each journal-carrier.The journal-carriers and rollers are forced toward the cylinder bysprings K placed in sockets of the cross-bar E of the main frame, saidsprings acting against shoulders of guiding-ste1ns,whioh they surround,and the upper ends of which stems terminate in a yoke and form thesupports on which trunnions L of the roller-frame rest, therebysustaining the said frame on yielding supports, and holding the centralrollers to the cylinder with the greater pressure. The ends of the baror rod I (or it may be the trunnions) are arranged to play in slots inside pieces of the main frame.

The space between the outer rollers and the cylinder is susceptible ofrapidlywidening to allow the sudden entrance of thick portions of theclothes without sensibly affecting the elasticity of the springs K, anda featureof the action of the rollers and frame is that the opening ofthe space on one side of the cylinder contracts the space on theopposite side and compresses the clothes as they emerge and escape. Therollers are adapted for adjusting themselves at either end independentlyof the other to the body of clothes, whether thick or thin, thejournal-carriers at opposite ends of the roller-frame rocking not onlyon their trunnions, but on the connec tion-bar I, making an automatic orselt adapting and selt adjusting pressure on the clothes from the timethey are inserted until they leave the machine. The rollers present alarger curve and more surface to the clothes, as to each, than thatpresented by any one of the ribs of the cylinder, and the relativearrangement of the ribs and rollers is such that the. motion of themachine in operation produces a quick succession of light blows on theclothes, caused by the oscillation of the roller-frame, whereby therollers are forced against the opposite sides of the cylinderalternately, which, in connection with the selfadjust-ing action of therollers, renders the Washing operation far superior to that where thereis no such alternating action. The machine is susceptible of variation,however, within the scope of the invention.

I claim as my invention 1. In combination with the revolving" ribbedcylinder and oscillating roller-frame, the guid- JNO. M. OAKLEY.Witnesses:

HENRY J. LEWIS, HORATIO W. OAKLEY.

